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The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death: Reflections on Revenge, Germophobia, and Laser Hair Removal [Bargain Price] [Hardcover]

Laurie Notaro (Author)
4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (96 customer reviews)

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Book Description

June 24, 2008
Laurie Notaro has an uncanny ability to attract insanity–and leave readers doubled over with laughter. Need proof? Check out The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death and try not to bust a gut.

Join Notaro as she experiences the popular phenomenon of laser hair removal (because at least one of her chins should be stubble-free); bemoans the scourge of the Open Mouth Coughers on America’s airplanes and in similarly congested areas; welcomes the newest ex-con (yay, a sex offender!) to her neighborhood; and watches, against her own better judgment, every Discovery Health Channel special on parasites and tapeworms that has ever aired–resulting in an overwhelming fear that a worm the size of a python will soon come a-knocking on her back door.

In Notaro’s world, strangers are stranger than fiction. One must always check the hotel bathroom for hobo hairs and consciously remember not to stare at old men with giant man-boobies. And then there are the lessons she has learned the hard way: Though it may seem like a good idea, it’s best not to hire a tweaked-out homeless guy to clean up your yard.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer says that Laurie Notaro is “a scream, the freak-magnet of a girlfriend you can’t wait to meet for a drink to hear her latest story.” With The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death, Notaro proves she’s not only funny but resigned to the fact that you can’t look bad ass in a Prius. Don’t even try.

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The Idiot Girl and the Flaming Tantrum of Death: Reflections on Revenge, Germophobia, and Laser Hair Removal + The Idiot Girls' Action-Adventure Club: True Tales from a Magnificent and Clumsy Life + I Love Everybody (and Other Atrocious Lies): True Tales of a Loudmouth Girl
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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In her latest collection of essays, Notaro (The Idiot Girl's Action-Adventure Club) turns out a double-handful of chuckle-worthy vignettes, looking at episodes of panic on an airplane, spying on guests at a mountain resort, learning to live with the ex-con down the street and, of course, handling the numerous disappointments and betrayals of the human body. Notaro blends sardonic, often self-deprecating comedy with disarming sincerity, delving into weight gain and body hair issues without hesitation, but staying closer to house, hearth, and everyday life with husband and dog. Most of the time, her quips rise to the occasion, but occasionally fall flat (as in "Death of a Catchphrase"). Although the majority of Notaro's musings are light-hearted, she reveals an affecting serious side in her essay on a pet's death. With plenty of humorous insight into the everyday debacles of an average gal from Arizona, these entertaining essays should make satisfying, bite-sized beach reading.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Review

Praise for Laurie Notaro

“[Notaro’s] quirky humor, which she’s previously showcased in her cult-classic essays on girly dorkdom, runs rampant.”
–BUST, on There’s a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell

“Notaro is a natural comic, a graduate of the Jennifer Weiner school of self-deprecation, but she’s best when she’s being nasty.”
–Houston Chronicle, on There’s a (Slight) Chance I Might Be Going to Hell

“Notaro is everywoman. She is every woman who has ever made a bad judgment, overindulged (you pick the vice), been on a fad diet, been misunderstood at work, been at odds with her mother or been frustrated with her grandmother’s obsession with Lifetime TV, while somehow being a little too familiar with the conflicted, star-crossed personages of those movies.”
–San Antonio Express-News, on I Love Everybody

“Notaro’s humor is self-deprecating, gorily specific, and raunchy.”
–A.V. Club (The Onion), on Autobiography of a Fat Bride

“[Notaro] may be the funniest writer in this solar system.”
–The Miami Herald, on Autobiography of a Fat Bride

Product Details

  • Hardcover: 240 pages
  • Publisher: Villard; 1 edition (June 24, 2008)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1616791160
  • ISBN-13: 978-1616791162
  • ASIN: B002SB8OS4
  • Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.6 x 1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (96 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #355,229 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Laurie Notaro was born in Brooklyn, New York, then spent the remainder of her formative years in Phoenix, AZ, where she created something of a checkered past. She is the New York Times Best-selling author of the humor memoirs The Idiot Girls Action Adventure Club, Autobiography of a Fat Bride, I Love Everybody and Other Atrocious Lies, We Thought You Would Be Prettier, Idiot Girls' Christmas, There's a Slight Chance I Might Be Going to Hell, The Idiot Girls and the Flaming Tantrum of Death, and Spooky Little Girl, which will be available April 13, 2001. She is a terrible typist, doesn't suffer Big Ikes very well, and lives under an assumed name in Eugene, Oregon where her neighbors believe she is writing about them, but she is not. She has a cute dog, a nice husband and misses Mexican food like a limb lost to diabetes.

 

Customer Reviews

96 Reviews
5 star:
 (66)
4 star:
 (13)
3 star:
 (8)
2 star:
 (6)
1 star:
 (3)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.4 out of 5 stars (96 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 33 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Laurie's Best Yet, June 27, 2008
By 
Stephanie Martin (Lake Worth, FL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
I have been a fan of Ms. Notaro for a long time. Once I picked this book up, I couldn't stop reading. I stayed up until after 3:00 this morning, and got pinched by my husband a few times because I kept waking him up by laughing out loud. The Germophobia story had me doubled over, trying to catch my breath I was laughing so hard.

One thing that was in this book that I never expected was a very poignant story about the author's dog. I won't give anything away here, but it was incredibly beautiful and sad.

This is my favorite book that Ms. Notaro has ever written. I really enjoyed it, and now I can't wait for the next one!
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15 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A little let down, June 30, 2008
By 
I have bought and devoured every Laurie Notaro book that she has written. By far, I still think that her first book was her best. In this new book, I didn't even chuckle until I was almost halfway through it.

Now, the second half of the book was pretty good, but I paid for a hardback book for which I only enjoyed half. I did laugh out loud at a few moments, but there just seemed to be less to be tickeled by this time around.

One of the other things I found a bit irritating was the phrasing she uses. She writes very conversationally, but her passages become so longwinded and mixed that a number of times I had to reread sentences to understand what she was getting at. I understand that this is part of her humorus effect, but this book felt a bit like it was tripping over itself too much.

Don't get me wrong...I will buy the next one when it comes out...but I don't think any of her new material will be as good as her first, or even her second book.

*** I am amending this review.

Hours after I posted this review, I received an email from the author stating..."Thanks for the crappy review on amazon, beth." I find this to be extremely unprofessional and immature. She sent a second email later that day to say that she should not have sent the email, but she never actually said that she was sorry for sending it. I believe her unapologetic email was to prevent bad PR.

She might have been upset by my "crappy review" (which I don't find to be that harsh at all) but she had no right whatsoever to try and shame me. This is a customer forum. We should be free to present our opinions without the threat of harassment from others, especially when the review was in no way rude or undignified.

Just my 2 cents.
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12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars She's Baa-aack!, July 9, 2008
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
Fans of Laurie Notaro's first-person stories will be delighted with this latest collection of "reflections." After a brief foray into the world of fiction with a zany, semi-autobiographical novel, once again the Idiot Girl is back to form, sharing stories and observations of her decidedly normal life with an original and laugh-out-loud way with words.

Notaro never holds back. Her polished writing style has a conversational, off-the-cuff quality to it, allowing readers to feel like we're right there in the room with her, listening to her outrage at a big dog taking a dump on her front lawn, or breaking out her bird flu mask on a plane after the passenger seated next to her open-mouth coughs for the last time. She's like your funniest friend--the one you know will make the party more fun as soon as she opens her mouth and launches into her latest life experience. I know I couldn't wait to open and devour this book, and I wasn't disappointed. Five stars all the way.

Michele Cozzens is the author of It's Not Your Mother's Bridge Club.
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